Yorktown Virginia, and Yet More History!

Yorktown was the last town for us to visit in Virginia's Historic Triangle.  Therefore our last day while staying at the Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center would be spent driving down the scenic Colonial Parkway to the town of Yorktown. To us, driving Colonial Parkway was much like driving down any part of Natchez Trace as it offered the same beautiful drive through the woods.

We pulled into the sleepy town of Yorktown and found parking right near the old part of Main Street. Yorktown is best known as being the spot where, in 1781, the last pivotal battle of the American Revolution was fought. This is where General George Washington's troops aligned with the French and defeated British troops led by General Charles Cornwall.  This victory has been credited with being the one that led to America's independence.

Yorktown was nothing like Williamsburg and Jamestown as it was a pretty quiet place. Main Street is more rural in nature and has houses that date back to the 1700’s all along the block. A few businesses are scattered about but not much to see or do other than visiting the historic sights. Most visitors come here to see Yorktown and its battlefield which is a National Monument and part of Preservation Virginia.

When Yorktown was at its peak from 1740-1770 there were just under 300 buildings with nearly 2000 residents. Modern Yorktown has only 20% of those same buildings as the others were either damaged or destroyed during the 1781 siege. Today Yorktown is still an active community of about 200 residents.

We walked through town and toured the inside of the home of Thomas Nelson Jr. who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. It is always an honor to be able to walk in the footsteps of such historic people. A few of the remaining buildings on Main Street still show scars from the siege in the 1700’s. We could see several cannon balls that were secured in damaged exteriors as a reminder of what happened.

To commemorate this great battle the Yorktown Monument to "The Alliance and Victory" was the authorized by the Government on October 29, 1781, ten days after the victory at Yorktown. Although it had been approved construction on this stately monument didn’t start till 1881 and was finished by 1884. It still stands today to celebrate the British surrender.

After visiting the historic part of town we walked down to the riverfront where we found a nice park and a few businesses. We also saw a masted ship available for tours that was docked near the riverfront. The free Yorktown trolley happened by so we hopped aboard and rode the entire loop around town. It made a stop at the Yorktown Battlefield Visitor Center which we had missed on our way into town.

Once we got off the trolley we drove over to the Visitor Center where we watched short film about Yorktown. The small museum has part of a reconstructed British frigate that we were able to walk in to get the feel of what it was like. The neatest thing at the museum was an exhibit of George Washington's original field tents. Outside there was an observation deck that provided us views of strategic points on the battlefield.

After leaving the Visitor Center we toured the Yorktown Battlefield by taking a driving loop.  There were informational signs at the various roadside turn outs. An audio tour tape and recorder can be rented at the Visitor Center's gift shop but we didn’t do that and maybe we should have as it would have likely given us more information than we were privy to. Nevertheless we enjoyed our historical day on the Road of Retirement…

The Capitol City of Richmond Virginia…

After touring both Williamsburg and Jamestown we decided it best to take a break from history for a while (or so we thought). Since we were near the capitol city of Richmond Virginia we agreed a short road trip to the city would be in order. An added bonus to this side trip was the opportunity to meet up with a friend we knew in College Station Texas in the early 1980’s.  So off we went up the interstate to explore the city of Richmond…

Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia and was incorporated in 1742. With well over one million residents it is indeed a large city. Located along the James River and although it wasn’t the original capitol of Virginia it became the capital in 1780. It certainly had its place in history so we really didn’t take a a day off from being entertained historically after all.

The most notable event that occurred in Richmond in my eyes was the "Give me liberty or give me death" speech in 1775 by Patrick Henry. Therefore, we wanted our first stop before going into the city proper  to be a stop at the site where the speech took place, St. John's Church. The church and the accompanying graveyard were certainly interesting. Edgar Allen Poe’s mother is buried there and to see grave markers of people born in the 1600’s is certainly a rare event for North Americans.

There were lots of interesting houses of various architectural designs near the church so we walked around a bit to admire them close up. Sharon also wanted a stop at Libby Hill Park for views of the skyline and to see a Richmond original, an art piece called Big Indian named "Connecticut" peeping over the roof edge of a tobacco plant. It actually had been moved from under the grandstand at a minor league baseball park to the roof of the  tobacco plant. An artist named Paul DiPasquale created it in 1983. A fun sighting indeed!

Next we drove on into town and found a parking spot at a meter for $1.20 per hour and lucky for us there was an hour still left on it. There were a lot of sights on our list to see in Richmond so we donned our comfortable athletic shoes and off we went.  Our first stop was  State Capitol. Richmond, being the third capitol city of the state of Virginia, completed the capitol building in 1778. We had already visited the previous two capitols in Jamestown and Williamsburg. The capitol is a mix of new and old wings and visitors enter in the new wing which is actually several stories under the older section of the capitol. It was yet another interesting capitol building to visit.

Next we walked over to the new City Hall stopping however to visit the very beautiful and colorful old city hall building.  The new city hall has cool observation deck from which we saw fantastic views of the city.  After admiring the views we strolled through a few buildings connected to Virginia Commonwealth University.

Other interesting sights we encountered were the John Marshall House which was the home of the former Chief Justice of the United States and the former white house of the Confederate States of America. With all the hoopla going with regard to the confederate flag we found it interesting that a policeman was positioned near the entrance of the Confederate museum.

After walking quite a lot it was time for us to meet our old friend at the Capitol Ale House in Richmond. We found our way to the meeting and our friend Bland arrived shortly after we did. We shared lots of stories and laughter until it was time for him to catch his bus back home. We had so much fun we forgot to take our customary picture with friends so I guess we will just have to come back this way to visit again some day…